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Thursday, September 2, 2010

JC, AFF, Chim Chiminey, Throw Up and Mice

I've been working on this blog for a few days now...it just seems every time I sit down to work on it, I get distracted, interrupted and sometimes, lose interest....I think I lose interest because I write too much....I'm a talker....how annoying...see, this is why I can’t fulfill my dream of being a writer; I talk too much, have no direction, and get bored way too easily (so character development is out and I’m pretty sure that's key to writing)

Earl, JC and his Dad
Anyway, I left off on with Mikel's Wedding - that was back on August 21st.

Last night, Lucy awoke in the middle of the night and as I was cuddling her (waiting for her to fall back asleep) I started to worry about my little sister. Not because she's married but because she's in Hawaii on her honeymoon and is supposed to get on a plane tomorrow to come home but this Earl guy could make it difficult for her to land in Boston. Hey! Earl! Leave my sister alone! Don't touch my sister!

Not sure why I got all worried and worked up about it; probably because I haven't been to Church for a few weeks (try keeping Lucy quiet and in her pew for an hour some Sunday morning). I think it’s because I miss Church (notice I said miss and not missed; big difference) And no, I'm not a Jesus freak who is about to start preaching about going to church to save your soul from the devil....but I am a big fan and go to Church because I like to and because I need to - and if that offends, well, look deeper within yourself because it really should not.

My point is, I miss my pal JC and his Dad - I really need to get back....I guess I did not realize how much my time spent with them grounds me...

No can do, Richard's in Australia
Awhile back, Sean’s boss went to Australia. We were trying to plan a couple days off (or days we could leave early) to get some things done including a couple doctor's appointment. But every time we tried to do or schedule something, Sean would say, No can do, Richard will be in Australia. So for a few weeks, every time someone asked me to do something (Sean, a friend, someone at work) I would say Geez, no sorry, no can do; Richard will be in Australia.

No one thought it was funny but Sean....

I busted out with that line this morning when someone came in and asked me if I could do something for him. I looked at him, paused for a moment and said, No, uh uh, no can do...Richard's in Australia.
My co-worker looked at me all pissed off and said Well when the hell is he coming back?!? He's been there for like a month now...

This portion of my blog below was started Sunday, it was, at one point, 5 pages...but I whittled it down because frankly, I could have kept going and never ended.....

We've never Bonded
A couple weeks ago, Sean informed me Lucy did not like him....that they had never bonded or connected and that he was second fiddle to me....all because Lucy would not let him hold her that night as we were trying to put her to bed. So I tried to empathize with him but he kept yammering on about how she did not like him. I said honey, what makes you think that? He responds by telling me that for the past few days, Lucy only wanted me. Yes, I say, and for the week before that, she only wanted you. Babies go through phases Sean…and she have been through Mummy phases, Daddy phases and remember that week she did not want either of us, she only wanted Elmo? It did not make him feel better so I let him work through it….

First thing out of Lucy's mouth the next morning? "Daddy!" As she gave him a big grin and giggle and reached up for him....but no, they've never bonded or connected.

Papa and Noni
I forgot to mention in my last blog that Lucy can now say Papa (my Dad) and Noni (my Mum)
And now, she will randomly yell out "PAAAPAAA! NONN-NI!"
Funny thing is, when she yells Papa, her voice gets deep, when she yells Noni, she goes all high pitched

Time to get your Folk on
The American Folk Festival was on up in Maine this past weekend. It started Friday, August 27 and ended yesterday, the 29th. As I blogged last year, and as many of you already know, Sean goes up every year to lend his time and muscle (he is way stronger than he looks, and I’m being totally serious). It’s been a family affair for a number of years (Dad, Sean, Felicia, Teresa all working; Mum and various other offspring attending only because Dad could score us movie star parking and free food)

Usually, we both (and now all three) go up…Sean takes the bus up on Tuesday so he can work Wednesday through Sunday and I would follow up Thursday night or Friday morning...all so I could get there for the opening ceremonies on Friday because it’s a Parade and I love Parades…and I love blueberry smoothies and Kettle Korn which we all know, always taste best at a Festival/Fair...I pretty much go for the Parade, the Smoothie and the Kettle Korn.....and if I catch an act or two great...but I am not one of those people who can camp out for the day or drag my chair from stage to stage knocking over old people and kids as I bum rush the stage in hopes of getting my picture snapped and ending up in the BDN (Bangor Daily News) while wearing Birkenstocks, a prairie skirt, and a tunic top...not that there’s anything wrong with that.

We decided this year Lucy and I would skip the Festival...we had a tough drive back from the Wedding and are planning to go back up Labor Day Weekend for the Blue Hill Fair so we did not think three weekends in the car was fair to Lucy - for the first time since 2003, I skipped the Folk Festival....Sean may want to correct me and say Maria, we started dating in 2005, that was our first festival..Yes Sean, it was but I did do stuff before I met you.....and yes, I love you and stuff is way better now that you are in my life

So Sean heads up Tuesday and Lucy and I were on our own from Tuesday night to Sunday.

Tuesday
Tough day at the office….I was behind from being off the week before and it seemed everything I touched went to shit…I could not wait to get home and go to bed early. But as with most couples, I could not sleep without my husband and stayed up way too late watching TV. Watched a couple crappy police dramas....which led me to being convinced at one point there was someone on the back porch...turns out it was my own reflection....I may have a slight case of paranoia especially when I'm home alone

At bedtime, Lucy and I were in her room reading books…every few minutes, she would run to the door, stick her head out and look left and right while yelling for Daddy….terribly endearing but also slightly heartbreaking.

Lucy wakes up crying three times during the night, neither of us slept well

Wednesday
Rain all day...cold, drizzly rain (I hate it when people describe rain as wet....) that soaks you even though you can barely see it coming down

After dinner, we're about to head upstairs for a bath when I hear this metallic sound, like something vibrating. So I walk into the living room and look at the heating registers because sometimes, Lucy drops her toys in there...but then I'm thinking why would the heat be kicking on?

And just as I think that, I hear this loud grinding noise that turns into an even louder booming noise which then morphs into a buzz....I throw open the basement door and the sound gets louder.

I run down over the stairs, throw open the door to the laundry/utility room and see smoke.
Double time back up the stairs, grab Lucy, the phone, my car keys and turn off the emergency oil switch. And of course it’s the one night my two next door neighbors (the ones I would call if I needed anything) are not home...so I call my husband...I know I know, rookie mistake but I was panicked.

He says call John the Oil Guy....right I say as I happened to grab the magnet off the fridge with his number. So I call John and he can tell by my voice that I'm.......scared....yep, I was scared, no problem admitting that! So he says throw the emergency off switch (I did I told him) and tells me that Frank the Oil Burner Guy will be right over.

I look in the basement window, no flames so I know it’s safe to go back in...At the same time, I look on the ground and see pieces of the fan blades from the chimney...

We have oil heat and when new homes were built with oil heat, especially town houses as we live in, the builders, to save a few thousand dollars, did not install old fashion chimneys; instead, they put in motorized chimneys. When we had the oil burner serviced in February, Frank said the chimney would need to be replaced sooner than later......sooner had just arrived.

Frank arrives within half an hour, assures me we are safe in the house and says he can replace the chimney Thursday but I have to move everything out of the utility room.....so at 10pm, I'm in the basement wrestling with the storage shelf, tool boxes, storage bins and a Christmas tree stand. Oh, and then I have to move the stupid dumb elliptical out of the way of the bulk head door so he can get in and out. I swore a lot while moving everything

Lucy wakes up 4 times during the night...........

Thursday
Frank calls me, we have a new chimney and our bank account balance is substantially lower than what it was 24 hours ago….someone remind me why we bought a house?

Pick Lucy up from Puddle Duck and all the way home, she is calling out for her Daddy. We get home and it’s the first nice day all week and all the neighborhood kids are out. We stay outside and play for a bit but the kids only distract her for so long before she starts looking and yelling for Daddy.

We have dinner and I drop her to the floor to play for a bit while I finish cleaning up our dinner dishes. She was in the living room playing when all of a sudden, I hear her come running into the kitchen and she stops short in front of the refrigerator. She starts pointing at pictures of Sean calling out Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. She stands on her tippy toes and grabs one of the pictures that is encased in a plastic magnetic frame, clutches it to her chest and starts crying. Then, I swear this is all true, she puts her right arm up on the refrigerator leans into it resting her forehead on her arm and start sobbing while calling for her Dad…..Daddy, Daddy, DAAADDDYYY.

I’m at the sink doing the dishes trying really hard not to laugh because for all her pain, this is actually quite funny. I kneel down next to her; Oh, Lucy, honey, it’s okay. Daddy will be home soon (yeah right, not for another 3 days, who are we kidding, I miss him too)

She picks her head up, looks at me with crocodile tears falling down her face and wails; Daaadeee! Punctuated with a sob and throws her head back onto her arm. At the same time, she stomps her left foot and holds up the picture she pulled off the refrigerator.

So I scoop her up and snuggle her and carry her up for her bath. She held onto the photo right up until I dropped her in the tub at which point, she set it on the shelf in the bathroom ....in her line of vision from the tub! She took said photo to bed with her….

Lucy only wakes up once....but I'm tossing and turning worrying about money because that's what I do - and I miss Sean.

Friday
Lucy wakes me up at 5am. She's crying and when I go in her room, it appears that she has been sick, little bit of throw up in her bed, more in her hair. I clean her up and take her into my room with me for a half an hour snuggle before I have to get in the shower.

Lucy seems ok though she does not really eat much of her breakfast.....which is not entirely unusually…she’s never been good about eating first thing in the morning and often times ends up having breakfast at Puddle Duck.

I get to Puddle Duck and tell Cheryl that Lucy did not eat much breakfast and notice a sign that says there is a stomach virus going around the infant room.....for a split second, I consider taking Lucy home because she may have said virus…..but she has none of the other symptoms and it could have just been a fluke she threw up, right?

At noon, I get a call that Lucy is running a low fever, is lethargic and she is burping which smells like rotten eggs. Crap.

So I pick Lucy up from Puddle Duck and we head home….within minutes of being in the house, she throws up on me....I clean her up, change my clothes and we snuggle on the couch. Lucy burps and I pick her up and head for the bathroom a mere 15 feet away, but she throws up on me again. So we clean her up, I change and we sit on the floor in her bedroom for a bit just relaxing.

I decide I should take all her animals out of her crib and line it with two towels so if she is sick in the night, I can just drop the towel in the wash. As I’m doing that, Lucy….well, Lucy’s bum explodes. Poor kid…..it’s coming from both ends. So we get a clean diaper, another dip in the tub and this time, I leave her naked (diaper only) mainly because I’m running out of clean PJs

Once Lucy has calmed down, I take her downstairs and make her some rice and toast for dinner
She gulps her water and plays with the rice and eats a couple pieces of the toast…but really just wants to be held.

I’m standing in front of her chair, between the kitchen table and 5 feet from the sink when Lucy starts to cry…and then opens her mouth and throws up all over the front of me. She throws up so much that it drenches me and pools on the floor….I move towards the sink and she throws up again …it hits the floor and I slip in it.

So there’s throw up in my shirt, on my shirt, on my pants, on my face, in between my toes, all over Lucy’s face and tummy….she rubs her face and then throws her hands around my neck burying her hands, covered in throw up, in my hair. Back upstairs, back in the tub, serious snuggle time.

She finally falls asleep and I lay her in her crib and go downstairs to clean up the kitchen floor
I walk down to the kitchen and flick on the light to see a mouse eating her throw up. I jump up on the chair screaming like a 6 year old in a fun house, grab the broom and start whacking at the mouse…then whacking the counters and cupboards hoping to scare it away. He ran towards me, he turned around, ducked under the sink, popped back out, ran under the fridge and popped back out again finally disappearing under the sink. I hate mice. So I call Sean, screaming like a sissy because the stupid mouse kept popping his head back up. Sean laughed at me

Lucy was up and down all night - I think we slept for maybe two hours

Saturday
Lucy spent the whole day in my arms...and in between bouts of being throwing up on both of us and having diarrhea, she whimpers and naps. I get her to eat a bit and make sure she drinks lots of water, but she is miserable.

Around 5pm, Lucy has a nice long bath...I put clean clothes on her and we open the back door to get some air. I need to empty the trash so we step outside - Pat is out with the dogs, Lucy smiles for the first time since Thursday! We play with the dogs for about an hour - Lucy seems to being feeling better and I have hope.

Until I walk back into the house and realize it looks like a bomb went off.....there’s laundry piled up in the basement and on the first floor. Toys are strewn all over the place as I just kept pulling them out in an attempt to amuse Lucy. My work bag and lunch are still on the floor where I dropped them Friday afternoon and there are dirty dishes in the sink and the dishwasher is full....and then Lucy throws up...and I see two more mice...and Lucy has diarrhea, and throws up one more time.

I call Sean and beg him to come home as early as possible Sunday morning because I am a bit overwhelmed and on the edge.....

Lucy is up and down throughout the night.....and I'm tired...my nerves are shot and I'm convinced there are mice everywhere in the house...I even wear my slippers to bed so I don’t step on one or one does not take up residence in my slippers.....

Sunday
Lucy wakes me up by calling DAAADDDY. I walk in her room and she is standing in the middle of her crib holding Elmo and the picture she brought up earlier in the week. She has a big old grin on her face and starts bouncing up and down when she sees me...

Daddy will be home today I say
She claps and giggles.

Clean diaper, breakfast, we play...she takes a morning nap! I take a quick shower (FINALLY) and get a couple loads of laundry done

She wakes up, is bright eyed and bushy tailed...she's laughing and chattering and doesn’t fight with me when I lay her down to change her diaper and I dress her in proper outfit (figure we should make an effort to dress her up for Daddy...I mean she's been in nothing but a diaper and throw up since Friday)

I toss her in her chair for some lunch and as she's eating, in walks Daddy! Had you seen her face, you would have thought it was Santa Claus who walked through the door - she shrieked with delight, held her hands out for him and started chanting.....Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy!

But no, they've never bonded or connected

I'm relieved Sean is home and immediately demand he takes us out as we have not left the house for two days. We hang out at PetSmart for an hour watching the dogs and then go to Target for mouse traps (my dad sent 4 home with Sean, we bought 8 more. I tried to get him to buy poison and 20 traps but he suggested that was bit of over kill....and here I thought that’s what we were looking for! We get home and Sean lays 12 traps....I still think we should have more but he tells me to have patience

I finish the laundry, Lucy has dinner and a bath and I am so glad we are all together again....until we go to bed and Sean keeps me up with his snoring....and just as I fall asleep, Lucy wakes up screaming.....and we settle her...and just as I fall asleep, Sean snores so loudly it startles me and I jump up from the bed and then Lucy starts crying.....
And I'm still tired

Monday
Crazy day at work...I mean it’s out of control and I'm a bit frazzled.....admin is out sick, we have a new person who is still being trained and I’m trying to work on our insurance renewal...and nothing is working as it should be

I pick Lucy up from Puddle Duck and she is borderline cranky - they tell me she was fussing all afternoon. We get home and play outside for a bit but as soon as Daddy gets home, we go in for dinner

Sean finds one dead mouse and resets traps...after he tried to get me to identify the body (jerk)

Lucy gets a bath, we eat dinner, I finish laundry, we sit down together and watch a TV show and then decide to have an early night...we go to bed.....

Sean falls asleep first ...and starts snoring.....bad.... and then he stops breathing, I jab him, he catches his breath, and starts snoring again.......

Yes, he does have sleep apnea, diagnosed back in June and yes, he is getting one of those mask machines to sleep with but no, we don’t have it yet.......

I'm so tired I want to scream. I could go to the spare room and sleep but it’s hot and there is no ceiling fan in there....Sean is still snoring, I start reading

I just about fall asleep when Lucy starts crying

I go get her - she is screaming blue bloody murder. I am too tired to play the "let her cry it out" game

We go on the second bedroom and lay down together (please, do not pass judgment on me for letting her sleep in the bed with me until you have walked in my shoes over the week I just had!)

She tosses and turns and cries...and finally falls asleep....I watch her for a few minutes...she really is breathtaking and I helped make her.

I start to drift off to sleep when all of a sudden, I hear this deafening guttural snort...are you effing kidding me?!?!? I CAN HEAR HIM SNORING IN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wake up exhausted

Tuesday
Sean sends me an email and asks me of he had a lot of apnea episodes the night before as he’s really tired....if I could have gone through the computer and slapped him, I would have
I ignore said email

Quiet night at home....oh, except Lucy fell head first into the bath tub. She was leaning over it as Sean filled it running her hands under the water and she leaned a little too far...Sean caught her by the foot inches from her face hitting the bottom of the tub...he pulled her up and she was laughing.....

Wednesday
Lucy woke up all out of sorts.....tugging her ear, but no drainage...crying while she was eating and drinking...Sean said I bet she’s cutting a back tooth...I agree and he takes her to school leaving a note telling them we think she is cutting a tooth, please use teething tablets and Motrin (which we have left at Puddle Duck) if need be

I get a phone call at 11:30am telling me she has been crying all morning and is just not happy. And has a slight fever...did you give her teething tablets and Motrin? Not yet...just wanted to let you know if she does not get better, you have to come get her. Ok, I say, I understand. But how about you give her the teething tablets and Motrin and let her have her nap and see how she does. Right, okay, yeah, we should do that
I pick her up at 5:15pm and they tell me she had a blast in the afternoon...full of energy, lots laughs...dopes

Auntie Dodo and Ba (Donna and Robin) came over for dinner.

Sean cooked perfect chicken on the grill, and we served it with salad and corn on the cob...good food, lots of laughs, great company. These two sisters are like the Golden Girls (Dorothy and Rose for those of you wondering) We're very fortunate to have them in our lives.....

So now you are up to speed:
I worry about things out of my control
I miss JC and his Dad
Sean went to the AFF
Chimney blew up
Lucy was sick and threw up a lot
We have mice
Sean snores and
We have really good friends

We're headed up to Maine for the Labor Day Weekend
We'll take Lucy to the Blue Hill Fair where she can see all kinds of animals, the Sheep Dog Trails and hopefully, Rick Charette and the Bubble Gum band

I just want a bag of Kettle Korn........and a quiet night's sleep............